Ploafmaster General

Flickr user Christopher Holland created this excellent little sculpture. I commented on the photo on the originating page:

"This is really cool! It appeals to both my nerdy-technical and creative/design-oriented sides.

I like the continuation of the air stream concept in the lines on the box top as well."

Anyway, I dig it :-)

Isn't it a little sad and disturbing that now almost nobody is paying attention to Iowa? Suddenly the whole news-scape has their collective eye on New Hampshire for the first primary election (again, only for the two major parties). I wonder how much attention will be paid New Hampshire after tomorrow?

I'm just sayin'.

Just writing a short post to congratulate my brother, Mugs, for his new job. For the sake of his online privacy, I'll not name the company, but it's a definite step up in his burgeoning IT career. His new employer will provide plenty of opportunity for growth and continued education, and represents a more stable work environment than the job from which he resigned today. He'll be spending this week with his family before continuing to take the computing world by storm on Monday the 14th.

Rock on, bro!

I think Jake will be pleased that I didn't go for the Aldo Hilarion :-)

These are my new kicks, and it's pretty cool to have some semi-casual shoes with real cushioning. They already fit very comfortably without having been broken in, so I expect them only to become more comfortable with time. And no, I didn't pay nearly as much as you might think - I got a pretty killer deal, actually.

Awww, phooey. It seems like you can't look anywhere in the media these days without seeing some crap about the Iowa Caucuses. So here we have people from one state with less then one percent of the population getting 'round-the-clock coverage because of a non-binding "let's consider who we prefer" event.

Forget that this is another example of the two major parties getting all the attention. Take a look at the lower right-hand corner of the graphic that Blankenship posted today. You see that? Only TWO people that won in the caucuses have made it to the oval office. And look how popular they ended up :-)

Okay, that's not too fair. Popularity isn't a rational measure of political capabilities. But really. Since this event gained widespread attention in '72, only two winners have entered the White House as president? Puh-lease.

I'll pay attention when something truly significant happens.

My father gave Valerie and I a spot of currency for Christmas, and I've decided to use a portion of it for several books I've had on my mind. Here's the short stack:

1. Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - This is the book that, as I understand, identified Anthony Bourdain as the grand curmudgeon of the culinary world. I've always enjoyed his essays, so I look forward to this memoir of his days working in haute cuisine.

2. The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen - Writer Michael Ruhlman's latest book, even he refers to it as a "Strunk and White's" for the kitchen. Should have some excellent essays and provide a fantastic reference for technique.

3. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Ruhlman was involved with this book as well. But really - it'll teach me to make my own bacon. Need I say more?!?

4. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - This is Michael Pollan's follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I've been anticipating it's release since I finished the latter.

I couldn't really pass up the free shipping on Amazon, so now I have at least a week to wait for my volumes to arrive, but I certainly have plenty of reading ahead for 2008 :-)

So there's a whole lotta noise today about the Justice Department opening a criminal investigation over the CIA's destruction of two interrogation tapes.

Wait...they're still using tapes?!?

Before Christianity entered my household, my step-dad used to let my brothers and I watch pretty much any action movie he brought home. He's a huge fan of Schwarzenegger and Stallone, so fill in the blanks. My biological father never really cared what we watched when were were at his house, and he had HBO. This means I saw such gory glories as Commando, Predator, Terminator, and all three Rambo flicks before the age of 10. It also means that I'm all but desensitized to the over-done film violence in some modern cinema. While situationally disturbing, for instance, Se7en's graphic crime scenes did little to turn my stomach. So despite what I'd heard about the veritable river of crimson effluent in Tim Burton's adaptation of the Sondheim musical, it was with eager anticipation that I attended a showing of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Let me tell you, this flick is filled to overflowing with blood and violently realistic depictions of throat slitting (save for some over-dramatic squirting). But it's also filled with excellent music and fantastic acting. I'm already a fan of and quite familiar with Tim Burton's work, so I expected a heavy dose of black humor with the excellent direction, and I wasn't disappointed. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter made excellent leads (with surprisingly decent voices), and the supporting cast, especially Alan Rickman as the despicable Judge Tarpin, helped carry the weight quite well. The story was fairly simple, and great actors don't always make great singers, but this movie was a solid 4 out of 5 stars for me. I can't wait until Burton releases Alice and Wonderland...

I like to get to work earlier than necessary. My office's hours are pretty flexible, so I could technically sit down to work as late as 9:30 AM if I so chose. This, of course, would require me to stay later in the day as well, and this I can't abide.

I'm the sort of fella who likes to arrive by 7:45, work through lunch, and be out the door by 4:30. This allows me to accomplish certain errands that require attention before 5, and I get to leave the office while there's still some shreds of daylight, even during these shorter winter days.

Well this morning, I wish I'd stayed home an extra hour or so.

I arrived at my usual time, and I was digging out from under a vacation's worth of email. I'd just about finished when, at 8:33, I noticed that my network connection had dropped. Before I could consider the impact, the fire alarm for the building went off, and we were all ushered outside. In the 30 degree cold. With wind. For a FULL HALF HOUR.

Thankfully, I'd brought my coat (and my phone, just in case). After we were allowed to return, we still had no internet or phone for a solid half hour while much of the employees milled about with nothing to do. Clearly, the network has been restored...though I have to admit I was kinda hoping for the sort of outage that would have sent us all home :-)

Hooray for 2008! The leap year makes my birthday on Election Day, so I think I'll take the day off to vote, then bitch-and-moan about the government :-)

Of course, I'm really excited about the Summer Olympics. I love watching the gymnastics, the decathlon, et al., and I'm really curious how it's going to work out in air-poisoned Beijing.

Here we are, minutes away from the kickoff for what may be the most watched season game for this NFL season. I'm wearing my Giants jersey and I'm antsy.

I don't honestly have high hopes for my boys in blue, but I am hoping to see Strahan put a few hits on Brady before the night is through...

UPDATE:
Alas. My Giants didn't pull through. It's pretty cool that another team has a perfect regular season now (we'll see about the playoffs), but I wish it hadn't been my fellas at the end of it all with the expectations and such. Anyway, it was an exciting game.

Merry Christmas to me. One of my Christmas gifts from Mugs and his wife was Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". WOW.

I've read through it for the first time during this past week, and now that I'm back in Richmond I plan to re-read it with a pencil for note taking. I won't link it in the sidebar to Amazon because they don't seem to carry the fantastic and gorgeous Penguin Classics edition pictured above (which I received).

This is the second play I've read in as many weeks (after "The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O'Neill), and it's my favorite so far. The tension throughout this short drama is so palpable that I was nervous from start to finish. I wish I could explain further, but I'm not yet prepared for commentary until I re-read it and gather my thoughts. In short, however, I was floored by the quality and content of this play.

I'll have a bit of catch-posting coming shortly. My travels are winding down as I write this on Thursday morning from a Holiday Inn Express in Fort Pierce, Florida. Today, after checking out Stuart Beach with Val's family, she and I will head north to Jacksonville. We'll be back in action (and Richmond) by Friday night.

ARRRRGGHHHH.

So that LaCie networkable external hard drive I have? Well, I've been having plenty of issues with this lately. I don't really feel like explaining everything now, but essentially I'd like to format the whole disk so it doesn't have this wonky server software on it, and I want it to function like a simple slave drive.

The problem is, I can't get the friggin' disk to be recognized as a simple mounted volume when I hook it up via the USB jack. Nothing I do can get that done. OSX's Disk Utility doesn't even recognize it as a mounted volume, so I can't do anything from there.

I'm at a total loss here, and I'm about to smash my face through some plate glass...

Stop what you're doing. Really - right now. Go listen to the results of The Great Sufjan Xmas Song Xchange. Make sure you scroll all the way down to hear the winner, and do click the link to listen to all the other top entries. Many of them are quite good.

Well, it appears that Chrysler is even more of a sinking ship that I already thought...

Things appear to be so bad that they decaying auto maker is even dragging down it's buyer, Cerberus Capital Management. Dang.

When, after turning their noses at our fatuous Iraqi endeavor, the French lost favor with much of the American public I rolled my eyes as far back into my head as humanly possible. We had folks changing French fries to "freedom fries," imbeciles pouring out good French wine, and intelligent people with a none-the-less shallow memory of American history claiming massive French debt because "we saved their butts in WWII." Heaven forbid that a sovereign government disagree with the U-S-of-A.

Thank goodness most of this lunacy abated.

There remains, unfortunately, a fairly pervasive negative attitude towards France to this day in America. Whether it is the fashion, the food snobbery, the socialist domestic tendencies, or their frequently differing stances on the world stage, our populace carries a bias against French cultural elements which I cannot abide. I love red Bordeaux wine. I treasure those French-perfected cooking practices which serve me in the kitchen. I owe much to French film-making pioneers who advanced the art to tremendous effect. I'm anticipating my March trip to Paris as greatly as any vacation I've ever taken.

It was with whole-hearted fist-pounding agreement, then, that I read the latest post by Michael Ruhlman on his blog. He responds to a Publisher's Weekly review of his book, The Elements of Cooking, wherein he's criticized for his apparent Francophilia. Ruhlman claims that such acknowledgment of cooking's French roots is a strength, not a weakness. Right on, Mr. Ruhlman. Here's hoping I find your book under the tree wrapped in shiny paper on Christmas morning.

And they say that beans are musical...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GabHGlGm14&rel=1&border=1&w=425&h=373]
(via Ze Frank)

Sarah Walker tells us how to roll out of a moving car. She's really quite thorough.

Well? Should I? Shouldn't I? I'm thinkin' of doing for it this evening. This, of course, depends on whether the store in Short Pimp carries my size, and the shoe is as cool in person as I think it is on the web.

Does your Chevy van take too long to slow down? Why use one of those normal auto-parts stores when you can buy a shmancy new brake rotor over the glorious Internet...from...Amazon.

Really.



I found this while searching for Express Card Slot devices (slot was the key word for these slotted rotors), but it turns out Amazon has a whole section for auto parts and accessories. Who knew?

I couldn't help noticing, as I typed my last entry, that the word "schlock" wasn't picked up by the Firefox spell checker. I was surprised as I'd always thought this was a nonsense word - but as is often the case, I was totally wrong.

Here's what Webster has to say:

Main Entry:
schlock Listen to the pronunciation of schlock
Pronunciation:
ˈshläk
Variant(s):
or schlocky Listen to the pronunciation of schlocky ˈshlä-kē also shlock or shlocky
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
perhaps from Yiddish shlak evil, nuisance, literally, blow
Date:
1916

: of low quality or value
— schlock noun


Well how about that. I think I'll integrate the term more heavily into my everyday banter :-)

Those of you who know me well know that I despise 99% of modern radio stations. I hate that Clear Channel and Cox own nearly every radio station in Richmond (or elsewhere), and largely the same set of schlock rock plays on 102.1 and 101.1 FM.

In fact, I really only listened to NPR when I'm driving. Until, of course, my home-slice Jake introduced me to 103.1 FM. This frequency is the Richmond transmission of 91.9, WNRN FM in Charlottesville, VA. WNRN is a listener supported radio station - not NPR, but much the same model. They play largely rock music, but their programming page spells out their typical schedule which includes some hip hop, mash-ups, bluegrass, etc.

The broadcast can be a little spotty around Richmond (and nearly dead around Glenside for some reason), but it's generally clear enough to enjoy. Here's a sample of what's played recently:

Lips Like Sugar...Echo and The Bunnymen
No I in Threesome...Interpol
Some Surprise...The Cake Sale
Youre the World to Me...David Gray
Regret (Album Version)...New Order
Lets Call It Off...Peter, Bjorn and John

I hope their support grows sufficiently that their Richmond broadcast gains strength and clarity. Rock out with your...um...smock out.

For your own good, please go to the website for This American Life and listen to this week's episode. Particularly the segment on Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble that starts after the introduction. Holy CRAP, it's hilarious.

Here I am trying to squeeze in at least one post for the weekend before I hit the hay.

So Valerie's sister, Elizabeth (or Margaret depending on who's asking), has driven us around Tallahassee all weekend long, and over the course of these few short days we've seen this ridiculous sight:



Now I can't find a decent sized picture of this anywhere (yet), so let me explain. That window depicts Bobby Bowden, the CURRENT coach of the FSU football team, looking out over a packed stadium. This window is over the entrance to said stadium. This is not a joke.

It seems that everybody who makes decisions about buildings at FSU thought, "Oh yeah, a gaudy stained glass window of our coach would look amazing...for the right donation, of course."

This is tragic, too, because much of the architecture at FSU is glorious and classic - the football stadium included.